The Department of Mathematics and Statistics is advising students who recently took the Math Placement Test (MPT) that they may have received the wrong test results.

The test, which is written annually on the first Saturday in June, is a diagnostic test of basic skills in mathematics to measure levels of competence in specific core areas. The MPT consists of 100 multiple-choice questions and there are a number of different versions of the test, each being written in different sites across Newfoundland and Labrador and in other Canadian provinces.

During the most recent exam, the wrong marking key was used to grade one of the versions, which resulted in a number of students from Newfoundland and Labrador being graded incorrectly.

“It was a simple error and one we’ve never made before,” said Dr. Edgar Goodaire, interim head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. “The marks were released at noon on June 20. Almost immediately we started getting phone calls because obviously the marks were wrong – very good students were reporting very poor scores. It was Thursday morning before we discovered the source of the problem.”

Dr. Goodaire says the department apologizes to students and the corrected marks were posted on Friday afternoon, June 22.

“My understanding is that there are still a few students claiming that their mark doesn’t look right,” he said. “That always happens and we will investigate these individually as we always do.”